Plastic HTC One M8 Ace: ‘much more affordable’ than Samsung Galaxy S5

The 2013 HTC One garnered a ton of critical acclaim, but unfortunately that praise didn’t translate into sales. It’ll likely be a similar story with this year’s HTC One M8, which faces incredibly stiff competition – from the Samsung Galaxy S5 in particular. What to do?

Well, you could release a plastic version of the HTC One M8 that massively undercuts the Samsung Galaxy S5. Sounds like a plan to us.

If this all sounds like a familiar story, well, it is. A fortnight ago, we relayed word from Focus Taiwan suggesting that the plastic HTC One M8 would come in at 3,000 Chinese Yuan, roughly £290 to you and me.

The news here is that a “reliable source” of Engadget is saying much the same thing, referring to the plastic HTC One M8 as the “M8 Ace”.

The source doesn’t care to put an exact price on the HTC M8 Ace, but supposedly it’ll be “much more affordable” than the Samsung Galaxy S5, which comes in at more than £500 SIM free.

As for HTC M8 Ace specs, you’re still getting a 5in 1080p display and top-of-the-range Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor, though it’s not clear if the Duo Camera will make an appearance. Can we have optical image stabilisation instead?

Interesting stuff. So we could have the HTC M8 Ace going after the Samsung Galaxy S5 on price, and the LG G3 topping Sammo’s flagship in terms of specs. All of which lends credence to the notion of Samsung bringing out the big guns in the form of the Galaxy S5 Prime.